Two minor obstacles...

[tcpip]

Well, my CCNA exam was this morning. No, I didn't pass. The computer crashed just after I started and so I had to wait an additional fifteen minutes for a restart (by which time I was getting tired, having been up since 3am). I also had the misfortune of discovering a couple of days ago that the main text I had been using for preperation, CCNA Exam Cram, is universally regarded as a piece of shit and add like to add my weight to that assessment. There are huge sections of the course which are largely ignored (particularly router configuration, OSPF, NAT and WAN implementations) and regrettably were significant parts of the exam I just took.

The beneficial upshot of all this is that I've realized that I (a) don't really like vendor certifications or (b) fact-based exams in general. I don't really want to have to remember that the default Administrative Distance for External EIGRP is 170, whilst it is 90 for internal IGRP and all other protocols are somewhere in between. That's what technical manuals are for - to store facts. Give me universal qualifications (whether it is TAFE or university) that are longer-lasting and projects instead.

Also there is the minor matter that network engineering and systems administration are not one and the same. I think I would go batty if I spent all my life dealing only with routers, switches and cabling. Although it is oft-maligned, I actually enjoy the technical support and training side of being sysadmin. It deals with people and fundamentally, I like helping people. The other option is, of course, programming. Contrary to popular belief, although programmers do spend a long time alone hacking away at code, there is such a thing as a community of programmers and they do share a lot of knowledge with each other.

Other minor obstacle of the week is called my supervisor. Oh yes, he likes my PhD. According to him, it's the first time he's seriously had to consider the suggestion that there are technological means for democraticisation. He says that it's a unique contribution, a goldmine of information that includes the most critical issues of the topic available. It is an extremely important and valuable text which needs to be expressed in the best possible way... And therefore (you saw this coming, didn't you?)... can you do a rewrite? *sigh*

Comments

[severina-242.livejournal.com]

Do you think you'll sit the exam again or has the experience of cramming all those twiddly facts into your head soured you on the possibilities of it as a career path?

Regardless dearheart - I'm proud of you.

As for the PHD - I think that it's fantastic news that your supervisor is so enthusiastic about it. And frankly there is a halfway decent bottle of champers in my fridge waiting to be popped ;-)

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry it didn't all go as planned :(

*hugs*

Aha!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Never say die, for I have found a decent alternative!

[beagl.livejournal.com]

I was very impressed by the early Microsoft MCSE exams (NT 3.51 time).

They did a really good job of requiring you to understand both the question and the answers. Often they'd have answers which threw in all the right buzzwords, but didn't quite connect them properly. If you'd just read a book you'd be doomed.

The more modern ones weren't nearly as good. (The IIS 4.0 exam was particularly bad - there's no way I should have passed that based on how much practical experience I had with the product.)

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear it didn't go well.

Here is my advice
- get the CCNA if you are actually looking for a job. If you are looking for work from one of the IT body shops or generally in big corporates, it will make a real genuine difference. If you are thinking about doing this, get the qualification. Probably more than a Cert 4.
- if you are going to do it eventually, do it now (ish). Its nice and fresh, you have more or less current hardware to practice with. And buy a better book, obviously.
- vendor certs don't make much difference if you are self-employed, dealing directly with your clients. They either trust you or they don't.
- don't be too down on fact based knowledge. Thats what the vendor certs are for. The stuff they teach you is actually useful. You may not need to know all the random constants, but its the easy part of the exam and it is useful to know because if you don't know it off by heart, when you encounter something that is configured in a weird way you won't realise that until much too late, when you start checking basic assumptions in desperation after hours of confusion.
- And sure, its not as good as a degree, but a vendor cert isn't a multi-year course either - they are designed to complement, and both serve their purpose (though actually, a comp sci degree usually won't help you all that much with sys admin stuff, they are usually much more programming focussed).

[greg.livejournal.com]

I'm just sorry that you had to invest so much time in this endeavor (the CCNA exam). Well, you have too many other projects on your plate at the moment anyway!

NAT and OSPF?

[mrrantypants.livejournal.com]

I'm currently cramming for the CCNA exam myself, none of the stuff I've been studying have covered NAT and OSPF though??

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

[velvetclaw.livejournal.com]

I like the 'fundamentally liking people' comment.
Can't live with 'em, can't live without out 'em. *sigh*
(nor university beuracracy - very very bad mis-spelling there - as I've told everyone on LJ this morning, I have a tummy bug and am a bit - urgh)

[mystic-one.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you'll give that exam another crack and get it sussed the next time. They often say these things are sent to try us...